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Friday, November 11, 2011

Bandcamp Plunder Of The Week! Bahamut - The Process

(Before I start, I again must apologize. It's nearing the end of the semester, and almost everyday for the past few weeks I've been telling myself I need to do another one of these posts. I'm apparently really bad at getting a steady flow or something. Anyhow, I'll just leave it at I'm sorry and move on.)

This week I bring you Bahamut's The Process. I didn't read anything about this album/band before listening, I didn't even try to figure out what genre they were, I just looked at the album cover, thought hey that's cool looking and hit play. Wow was I surprised. It was not at all what I was expecting, but it was better than what I was thinking it would be. Bahamut are on the line between really hardcore punk, and progressive metalcore/deathcore. Mostly a blend of the two, but I guess one could make an argument for both. They could be a lot of things really, but whatever you think they are, they're good. Oh and the vocalist reminds me of Oh, Sleeper and The Chariot. Which is definitely a great thing.

One thing that makes this album stand out, is the extreme power is has. It's raw, fast, loud, crunchy, and in your face heavy. A bit like Divinity or Mnemic, with influences from The Chariot.

The guitar work is good too. One might criticize them for their riffs being a little repetitive at times, but overall I'd say it works well with the sound they are going for. They are fast, help set a good tempo, and give up some well placed solos here and there to keep things interesting. Machine Gun Of God is a great example. The picking is really fast and actually seem to evoke an image of a machine gun firing. This song also has one of my favorite solos on the album, atop the same machine gun like riffs. The Leech and Paralysis are also really good songs showcasing the Guitarists capabilities of giving off a sense of organized madness.

The drums are a little drowned out by the guitars at times, but not too much and overall the drums are great. They serve their purpose well for the most part and absolutely destroy at times. I feel like they must go through drum heads so often because of how hard it seems he's slamming those drums. Throughout the album the drummer proves his abilities by making quick tempo changes flawlessly while making it seem easy.

I mentioned a little about the vocals earlier, but I'll expand a bit more here. The vocals kill it all throughout. They have a feeling of cold, angered desperation to them, almost like the vocalist is trying to get the attention of someone who can't hear, but he needs to tell them something really important. I don't know if that sounds dumb or makes much sense, but that's the best way I can describe them. Either way they are awesome. The lie somewhere between the vocalist from Oh, Sleeper, and Josh Scogin from The Chariot. Really powerful stuff.

One repeating motif the album has is that many of the songs end off with something really creepy and unsettling. One track ends with an audio clip from a film, that I'm pretty sure is Vincent Prices voice (He's in quite a few older horror films, and my personal favorite Disney Film The Great Mouse Detective as the voice of the eternally creepy Ratigan! But alas, I'm getting a little off topic.) Or it could be the guy from Pinky and The Brain; I'm not sure. These song endings really help bring the album together, and as I often like to say, give it a really good atmosphere. (An albums atmosphere is rather important to me. I feel like Metal albums should always try to give off a good creepy/dark atmosphere or ambience. and these guys definitely do that very well.)

The Process is a fantastic album. I'd definitely recommend giving it a listen. Tracks like False Creation, Machine Gun Of God, and The Leech are really stand out songs.